1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for distributing ring tone data that is used for generating ring tone of mobile phones.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile phones are often programmed to allow users to customize the ring tones thereof. Melodies, human voices, notes of birds, and other sounds can be used as ring tones of mobile phones. Customized ring tones amuse users, and also allow the users to identify incoming calls to their own mobile phones. Hoshina discloses in Japanese Open Laid Patent Application (Jp-A-Heisei 10-176879) that a mobile phone encodes a sound inputted by a user into a ring tone data, and generates a ring tone from the ring tone data when receiving incoming calls.
Ring tone data are often provided through a network. Network-based ring tone distribution systems are disclosed in Japanese Open Laid Patent Application (Jp-A-Heisei 10-173737, Jp-A 2001-36968, and Jp-A 2001-237915). The conventional network-based ring tone distribution systems provides ring tone data produced from melodies of singers and/or voices of famous talents.
In some cases, however, users may find that the provided ring tones data do not include their favorite ring tones. In addition, the systems do not allow users to use unique sounds as ring tones for their mobile phones. That is, the conventional system does not satisfy user's needs to use their own voices and the voices of their friends and family members as ring tones for their mobile phones. A need exists to provide a ring tone data distribution system that allows users to use their favorite sounds including human voices as the ring tones.
A technology which may be related to the present invention is disclosed in Japanese Open Laid Patent Application (Jp-A 2001-78271). The document discloses a mobile phone system for providing various data about the calling party before the called party answers the call. The information may include image data and/or audio data.